Age Group: Years 4 - 6
Curriculum Links: Science: Materials, recycling, magnetism. Literacy: Extracting information
What do I need?
Collection of drinks and aerosol cans
Collection of food cans
Magnets
Unit Summary
Steel and aluminium will be compared as two characters are devised that are made of these materials. Children learn about the characters and their material characteristics by completing fun activities based around these characters.
Teacher Information
Two materials dominate the food and drinks canning market and those are aluminium and steel. These two metals differ in a variety of ways and this lesson encourages children to find out more about these two materials and how they differ. They also learn about how much energy can be saved if these materials are recycled.
The children read an information sheet about the two materials. They then have to design two cartoon characters; Alice aluminium ( an aluminium drinks can) and Stevie Steel (a steel (tin-plate) can. Using the fact sheet they must extract information to go in the speech bubbles of their character.
Unit Materials
Extensions and Variations
This is an ideal opportunity to stress the benefits of recycling. Through reading this fact sheet, it becomes obvious how much energy is saved by recycling steel and aluminium. Children could investigate setting up a recycling point in school for these items or find out how their local authority is tackling the recycling of steel and aluminium.
Children can also further develop their cartoon character and create comic strips style stories with their characters explaining the benefits of recycling.
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